


Glass Lion Menagerie

by Anonymous



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Pregnancy, Torture, Trans Character, Trans Keith (Voltron), Trans Male Character, Unplanned Pregnancy, Writer's Block Musings, basically Keith finds out he is going to have a smol and shit goes down, very angsty, violence because Keith gets all his limbs broken
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-10 18:21:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,865
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11132253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Keith was fragile. Keith did not like to feel fragile.





	Glass Lion Menagerie

**Author's Note:**

> I am not trans, so if anything is off or wonky, please tell me!
> 
> ALSO, I did not have Keith carry his knife because I honestly have no idea where he keeps it while he has his armor on lmao

          He watched as the writing on the hologram translated over from Altean.

          “No…”

          He scanned over the results, right to the summary at the bottom.

          “No, no, _no.”_

          **Cryopod A: Examination Complete**

**Hormone levels elevated due to first stages of pregnancy.**

          Keith slammed his hands against the control console.

          “No, no— _damnit.”_

          The hologram switched off, and Keith was left staring at a blank space. He swore under his breath and kicked the console.

          He should not have let this happen. He should have taken that fucking pill.

          Keith sometimes forgot to eat or shower, let alone take a pill every day. He at first thought it would be practical—being saviors of the universe, he thought it would be best not to be occupied by the unfortunates of his body—but unlike Pidge being able to embrace the synthetic hormones wholeheartedly, Keith could hardly stomach them. They made him feel awful, and that made him not eager to take them, even when he did remember. He hated having a reason he felt weak more than anything else.

          He thought it would be fine. He had been foolish.

          Keith gripped his bangs, and he slid to the floor against the console. His eyes and throat hurt like he wanted to cry, and he bit his lip to stop himself although there was no one around to see. There was only him in his own woe, and that was the worst part, because he was so used to dealing with anger and having others receive the backlash of it.

          Anger was easy. But now, he was scared. So, so scared.

          .

          Coran looked at the note that popped up on the control panel.

          “Hum? That’s odd…”

          Allura turned from checking the coordinates. “What is it?”

          “Someone has accessed the medical bay.” Coran enlarged the tab. “It appears they accessed Cryopod A.”

          “I told the paladins to dress in their armor.” Allura sighed and shook her head. “We will be arriving to respond to the distress signal on Aygya shortly.”

          “Hum…” Coran twisted one half of his moustache. “Perhaps they wanted to go when they knew everyone else would be busy.”

          Allura let a little of her temper show. “Why would they do that?”

          “I can check…” Coran’s hand hovered over the hologram. “But, maybe it is best to ask when they return.”

          “Agreed.” Allura looked back to the coordinates. “I do not wish for them to feel as if we are prying into their private lives. I want them to trust us.”

          Coran nodded in understanding. He jumped when the alarm sounded, the note whisked away as red signals flashed on the screen.

          “Princess!” Coran pressed the control panel to bring up visuals. “Aygya—it’s surrounded by Galra!”

.

“They should be here soon.”

          Kalyps tapped a clawed finger against her cheek. Odix received a small shiver of fright.

          “Y-Yes, Commander.”

          She did not spare him a glance. Below, Aygya shimmered silver and purple in the light of its sun.

          Odix swallowed. The silence was sure to choke him.

          “Must I say—your plan is brilliant.” He forced a smile. “Using the metallic foliage of Aygya to block us from their ship’s sensors! Absolutely genius!”

          Kalyps sighed through her nose. Her eyes flicked to him, and he shivered again.

          “A-And the rest of it.” Odix tried his best not to shake and fidget. “Using their inexperience against them like that!”

          Kalyps’ expression did not change. “The part I am trusting to you.”

          “Of course!” Odix sat a little taller. “When they hesitate, just for that second, I will take one of them down. It’s perfect taking just one, since— “

          “Odix.”

          He hushed. Kalyps stared at him with the same cold eyes, and Odix felt as if she were strangling him with merely a look. She turned to look down at Aygya, where the communication tower was just visible as the planet rotated.

          “To ruin a collection, you do not have to break all the pieces.”

          She paused until Odix thought his heart had stopped.

          “Just one.”

          .

          Keith’s chest squeezed with the weight of his fear.

          He cursed and pressed both hands against his breastplate. Once, Lance had asked him why he did not wear a binder, and Keith had scowled at him and asked why he thought wearing a binder was practical with the amount of exercise they did in the first place. His chest had also never been very large, and wearing a sport’s bra flatten it to a point he could tolerate. He was supposed to have it removed altogether, but that became a dashed dream after he left the Garrison.

          Now he was here, and none of that really mattered.

          He had been careless: too trusting, too wrapped up in the moment, too in love with the way Lance brushed his fingers down his body like he so often did, too susceptible to Lance with his mouth against his neck; whispering so only he could hear.

          “I love you.”

          And Keith had melted, and he did not think, and it all became a terrible, terrible mistake.

          Keith did not know what he would tell Lance. He did not know what they could do.

          Keith let his hands fall from his chest. It was like his very heart hurt, and no amount of pressing could stop that.

          _“Paladins! Get to your lions immediately!”_

          Keith shot to his feet, his skin alight with warning as Allura’s frantic voice called over the intercom. He reacted, and rushed for the door, sliding out when the doors opened and snapped shut behind him.

          He remembered how scared he was.

          He froze, there in the corridor amidst the glowing lights and humming alarms. He thought of the missions before—of the firefights and the danger and the uncertainty of it all—and his throat tightened against his will. Tentatively, he glanced down to his stomach, where there was something although it looked like there was nothing.

          His life was not only his anymore.

          If he just threw himself in the pathway of danger, he was risking their life as well. And that—that reality, that he could harm someone of his very own creation, was almost enough to making him scream right there, to burst into the control room and beg Allura to run, just this once, at least until he figured out what to do and his heart did not hurt so much. He wanted to be selfish, because all of this was not fair, to him or Lance or anyone else with a family in the entire universe.

          _“Paladins, hurry!”_

          Keith slammed his fist against the wall. His arm shook, and his teeth clenched, and he tried to shake away any of the thoughts that would distract him.

          It did not matter if it was not fair. He had to go. He did not have a choice.

          .

          Lance saw Allura hunch in frustration.

          “They used the electromagnetic interference of Aygya to hide from our sensors.”

          Before the castle, the particle barrier blocked the fire from the advancing ships. Another battleship pulled from the shadow of the planet, and Allura struggled to keep her composure.

          “Coran, do we know exactly how many there are?”

          “Ah—no.” Coran checked the screen, then gave up and looked out to the ships. “But it’s a commander’s fleet, by the looks of it.”

          “The trees on Aygya contain a metal that must have thrown off our sensors,” Pidge relayed as she assessed the situation from her computer. “The forests are very dense across the planet, so no sensors or communication can get through to or from the surface. The only place they can come from is that tower over the trees.”

          “That must be where they pinged off the distress signal.” Hunk peered over her shoulder. “That’s how they set up the trap.”

          The door opened, and Keith entered with his helmet under his arm. Lance turned to see him, and their eyes met, and Keith went ridged. His throat jumped, and Lance cocked a brow. Keith seemed like he was suddenly aware he was staring and broke their eye contact. He ducked his head, and he went to his chair, and Lance was left wondering what that was all about.

          Over the past few days, something had been off with Keith: whether that was indicated by Keith wrapping up training early because his back hurt, or pushing Lance away with some furious words to be more careful about bumping his chest, Lance was not sure. He was surprised he picked up on it at all. Lance was not always the best at reading the situation, but he thought he knew Keith well enough to see that something was not right.

          He would have to ask him about it later.

          “Alright,” Shiro addressed the team. “We should get in our lions and give the castle covering fire. We don’t know what they have planned for us, but we at least need to thin the fleet enough to give Allura room to form a wormhole.”

          They answered in unison, “Understood.”

          They never said more than that. Saying anything else, like words of hope or encouragement, felt too much like saying goodbye.

          But Lance’s eyes fell to Keith. He watched as the platform lowered him to the hangar, and he almost wanted to call out something of what he felt.

          _Be safe._

          .

          Lance yelled over the communicator, “Keith, that was far too reckless!”

          Keith gritted his teeth. He fired at a sentry’s ship, and then another, trying to keep his head in the heat of battle.

          He was not being reckless: he was being clumsy.

          His lion felt his emotions, and she took it upon herself to move out of sync with Keith and the team in order to take Keith away from the danger. It was not like her at all, to not be the impulsive one weaving in and out of approaching gunfire, but she seemed to sense there was something different about her pilot than the typical distress of entering battle. It was not like him to be scared—she understood that more than anyone. They were connected, so Keith thought maybe she knew.

          “C’mon, Red,” Keith hissed through his teeth. “This is no time to get sloppy.”

          She growled in the back of his subconscious. She twirled over an advancing sentry ship, and the Yellow Lion had to swoop down to block them from the fire of another Keith had overlooked.

          “You alright?” Hunk asked over the communicator, but the Red Lion was already darting off.

          “Yeah,” Keith forced his voice level as he tried to regain control of his lion. “Thanks.”

          “You seem unfocused,” Shiro popped in. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

          Keith’s cheeks flushed. “I said I’m fine!”

          The Red Lion released the jaw blade, and Keith tore through a line of sentry ships. In the distance, two large battleships moved towards the castle.

          “This is ridiculous!” Pidge huffed. “We should form Voltron and take out the larger ships.”

          “They seem to be corralling us towards Aygya,” Shiro said as the Black Lion flew beside Keith. “They must have reinforcements there. We should take the space and form Voltron before they have a chance to come.”

          The Red Lion shuttered in her very core, like that was the worse idea she had ever heard. The other lions seemed to sense this, and they turned to the Red Lion in bewilderment.

          “Keith…?” Lance spoke hesitantly; Keith could almost see his eyes wide with worry, and he felt a deep sadness. “Are you--?”

          “We need to move—now,” Shiro cut him off. “The larger ships are facing this way. Okay, team, form— “

          Keith saw it. He did not feel it.

          There was the Black Lion, and suddenly a blue light exploded in his vision. He recoiled, and he realized he was not in his seat, and that everything near him was hot and bright and loud. He grasped around him, and his fingers locked around one of the steering handles. He tried to pull his body back into the seat, but the momentum was too much. He reached out for the Red Lion in his mind, but all he could hear was absent noise: the shriek of someone over the communicator.

          _“Keith!”_

          He did not hear anything after that.

          .

          Odix shot up from his seat and saluted. “Commander Kalyps! The Red Lion is down!”

          “Good work,” Kalyps replied, and Odix beamed.

          She stood with her hands behind her, watching the trail of sparks fall through the atmosphere of Aygya and the other lions as they zipped around frantically. Another battleship had moved in after the blast, and they seemed to be struggling to keep it at bay as they inched closer to the planet. A swarm of sentry ships launched from the communication tower, and they worked to flush the lions away from the planet now.

          Her plan was unfolding perfectly.

          “Communicate to the ground troops that the Red Lion has fallen,” Kalyps ordered, and Odix nodded and sat back at the controls. “Send ships X-9 and X-11 to extract the Red Lion from the surface. Commanding Officer Odix: you are in charge of the sky fleet.”

          “Yes, Commander.”

          Kalyps turned to the door.

          “I am going to the surface to assure that the paladin is separated from his lion.”

          .

          Everything was still.

          Keith felt his heart puttering against his chest: weak, but there, even as the rest of his body felt sore and battered.

          His face was smushed against the visor of his helmet. He lifted his head, slowly, his skull ringing with a headache as he took in his surroundings. He was still in the Red Lion’s cockpit, albeit wrongly, with his legs on the side controls and his torso rammed between the handles and the seat. He groaned and reached to pull into the seat.

          And he remembered.

          “No—no.”

          He scrambled to touch his torso and hips, and his muscles seized up in pain, but he did not care about that right now.

          “My…”

          He could not bear to say it. Below his chest was relatively unscathed, yet touching his abdomen almost felt like it stung where he did, and he could only hope that was his own nerves. He lifted his shaking fingers, and he yanked into the pilot’s seat, his movements a mess as he switched on the communicator.

          “Guys—guys, I’m here!”

          Static buzzed in his ear. He remembered what Pidge said about the trees on Aygya, and he scowled. He reached out to the Red Lion in his mind, and he was met with a deep silence. His throat tasted sour, and he nearly went into a fit of rage were it not for his every movement causing him pain. Instead, he exhaled and tried to remain level-headed, like how Shiro advised him to do when things got bad.

          He heard the hovering noise of a ship.

          Outside his lion, he could see the trees Pidge had talked about: massive things with purple bark and limbs as long as his lion, and thick clusters of silver leaves that blotted out the sky. He saw a patch of the sky, from where the Red Lion had fallen, and the front of a Galra warship as it descended above him.

          He had to go.

          He moved in enough of a panic not to cumber about his injuries, and he managed to grab his bayard and open the top hatch without much trouble. The Red Lion had landed at an angle, and Keith only had to ignite his jetpack to soften his landing as he dropped down the side. He landed on a ground of plush moss, but he did not have time to ponder it, and he rushed to hide amongst the tree roots and underbrush.

          He did not want to leave the Red Lion, but he knew it would not be wise to wait in plain view for whatever the Galra had planned. He ducked through the thick, arching roots that made the trees look something like bacteriophages into the deep shadows of the forest, and he settled in a patch of equally dark underbrush where he could see, but hoped he could not be found. The blot of sky was visible through one of the loops in the roots, and the ship seemed to circle as another descended from the cloud cover.

          Keith bit the inside of his cheek to keep his emotions in check. He wanted nothing more than to lash out—to jump back into the cockpit of his lion and launch towards the Galra ships, to tear them apart for daring to threaten him and everything he cared for. He wanted to fight, and he wanted to be reckless, because he did not know how else to deal with his emotions. Riding them out until they burned up was easy and childish, yet he knew deep in his core he could not. He would not. He had another life to think about.

          The hand holding his bayard began to quiver. He cursed, and held the arm with his other, trying to will away the thoughts that made him hurt and sick in a way he could not quite explain.

          When something chirped beside him, he swung out.

          The thing shrieked, and it zipped back into the underbrush as Keith’s bayard narrowly missed it. The sword skirted the top of the brush, and the cut leaves fluttered in a dark shower to the floor, where they rested on the ever-present moss. Keith noticed his breathing had gone ragged, and he tried to soften it as he backed up and held out his sword.

          His voice came out short, “What do you want?”

          A pause. Then, the thing poked its head out again, staring at Keith like it expected to be decapitated right then and there.

          It was something like a small anteater, with a long snout and beady eyes and fluffy backside. It stood partway up on its hind legs, bobbing and flicking out its long tongue to presumably smell the air. Satisfied, it dropped back on all fours, watching Keith with more understanding and less fear.

          Keith allowed his bayard to dissipate. The anteater creature wore a small pack, and it shifted it off and went digging through it with its paws. It retrieved a tiny fiber-woven cloth and held it out, and it took Keith a moment to realize it was for him. Keith took it just to be kind, and he removed his helmet and used the cloth to wipe his face before returning it with a nod.

          “Thank you.”

          It nodded back and put the cloth away before shouldering the pack. Its ears twitched, and it tilted again to its back legs, its tongue flicking wildly. Keith craned his head, straining to listen as well.

          He heard it: the distant thrum of marching soldiers.

          New panic seized his heart. He replaced his helmet and clutched his bayard close, and he heard the creature chirp in alarm as he jerked further between two roots. The pain from impacting the planet continued as his body tensed up, and he switched on the communicator just for the sake of trying.

          “Guys—Shiro! Lance! Hunk! Pidge! Are you there?”

          He was met with only static. The anteater creature looked at him with sad eyes. It fell back to its front legs, and Keith hissed under his breath, nigh throwing his helmet in frustration. He glanced through the roots to the Red Lion: her systems down, and his connection to her still silent.

          “… Damnit.”

          For the second time that day, Keith felt he might break down and cry. He gripped around his helmet, and he took a shuttering breath, subconsciously pulling up his legs to cover the part of him he wanted to protect the most. He stared at his knees, and he thought of everything that had happened, and he did not know what to do.

          He hiccupped so hard he practically dry heaved. He made a mistake. It was not _fair._

          Keith heard a soft chirp. He glanced up, and he saw the creature before him pulled up on its back legs. It motioned to the underbrush and dropped down, poking its head in then out of the leaves and looking towards Keith. It gestured with its head.

          Keith hesitated. “… You want me to go with you?”

          The creature nodded. Keith pursed his lips, and he looked willfully through the tree roots, where the Red Lion was left all alone and the ships hovered over her. A heavy ache came at the thought of leaving her there and allowing her to be again captured by the Galra and separated from her pilot—from _him._ It was almost enough to make him forget his fear and jump up and go back to her without any regard to his own safety.

          But he heard her, so quiet in his mind he could have mistaken it.

          _Go._

          The feeling of tears returned. Keith scowled—at his lion or the situation, he was not sure—and stood up, the creature perking and slipping into the underbrush. It chirped, and Keith stormed after it through the forest like he was angry: like that was what he was actually feeling and he could deal with it.

          He had to leave his lion. He did not have a choice.

          .

          Kalyps stood in the middle of it all.

          Around her, sentries and soldiers alike hacked at the tree branches, making room for the tractor beam to retrieve the Red Lion. In the distance, she heard the sounds of the underbrush being smashed as they searched for the red paladin.

          “So…”

          She stared into the lifeless eyes of the crumpled lion. She reached out and touched the chin.

          “We finally meet.”

          The Red Lion did not move. Kalyps smirked—a quick flick of the lips that was gone as soon as it came—and leaned forward, speaking in a hushed and evil little voice only she could hear.

          “We will find your paladin. He cannot hide from us forever.”

          Kalyps stepped back and crossed her arms.

          “It is only a matter of time.”

          .

          Lance was not one to lose his cool, but he was about to.

          “Is there no end to these _patrol_ _ships?”_

          He clipped a sentry ship and watched as it collided into another. He swiveled back to the large battleship, where Pidge and Hunk were trying to make quick work of the canons. Shiro zipped by in an attempt to approach Aygya, but was stopped by another wave of ships.

          “Apparently not,” Shiro groused as he maneuvered. “This must have been their plan from the start.”

          “They are forcing us away from the planet.” Allura popped up on the monitor with the star map she used to tract the lions, and she swayed as a powerful blast hit the particle barrier. “They must have sent those ships to collect the Red Lion.”

          “So we can’t form Voltron,” Pidge added as she attacked the bow of the battleship, and Lance covered her. “They want to take us out one by one.”

          “Possibly,” Allura replied, and then brightened. “Oh—the Red Lion just came back online!”

          Lance felt a little spark of hope. “Does that mean Keith is okay?”

          “I cannot tell from here.” Allura frowned. “The Red Lion isn’t moving.”

          Lance clenched his jaw so hard his teeth hurt. The Blue Lion responded, and she roared and blasted a tear down the side of the battleship with her mouth canon. The Yellow Lion followed suit, and the Green Lion tried to loop towards Aygya to no avail. One of the descended ships rose from the atmosphere, blocking the lions with a barrage of gunfire.

          “That doesn’t sound like Keith at all,” Hunk muttered. “I hope he _is_ okay.”

          “He’s gotta be,” Lance said mostly for his own reassurance. “Keith wouldn’t give up.”

          Keith had to be okay. He _had_ to be.

          Lance had to believe it would take more than being shot down from space to incapacitate Keith. He had to believe Keith was down there, alive and fighting to protect his lion: fighting to join them back in the battle, to launch over the silver trees and into the sky and switch on his communicator to tell everyone he was okay.

          _“It’s okay.”_

          Lance remembered Keith with his skin flushed in dull blue light, his eyes bright like comets and his voice calm and his hand brushing down Lance’s back.

          _“Everything’s okay.”_

          “Paladins!” Allura’s voice snapped Lance back from his sentimentality. “The Red Lion is on the move—I think they have it in one of the battleships!”

          The second ship arose from the planet. It sat parallel to the first, glowing with purple light as it exited the atmosphere.

          “But _which_ ship?” Hunk asked as the Yellow Lion flew under the damaged battleship.

          “Hold on.” Allura blew up the star map. “The ship facing towards the Aygyan moon—the second one. It has the Red Lion.”

          “The ship is going to try to jump into hyper speed once it leaves the atmosphere!” Coran called from the front of the castle. “You have to take out its hyper speed engine before then.”

          “Here.” Allura pulled up a diagram in the lions. “I should be near the bottom of the ship.”

          “Understood,” Shiro affirmed. “Alright—Hunk, Pidge, focus your lions’ canons on the engine of the first ship while Lance and I go after the one with the Red Lion. We don’t know if they separated Keith from his lion.”

          “Got it,” Lance answered. He gripped the steering handles, and he smirked despite the situation.

          “Ready, Blue?”

          The Blue Lion hummed in her core. Lance’s grin widened, and he shoved the handles forward.

          “Alright!”

          .

          A transmission came to the communication tower.

          “Commander Kalyps!”

          “At ease.” Kalyps waved down Odix’ salute. “Tell me the situation.”

          “The lions have attacked both ships X-9 and X-11,” Odix relayed. “They have targeted the hyper speed engines.”

          “Can the ships still fly?” Kalyps asked, and Odix nodded.

          “Yes, both ships are otherwise operational. They are capable of staying ahead of the lions, at least for a little while longer.

          “Good.” Kalyps crossed her arms. “Continue with Planned Procedure D.”

          Odix saluted again. “Yes, Commander.”

          The connection switched off. Kalyps turned towards the window and looked up at the cream-colored clouds, her expression unreadable even as she was the only one there.

          “Lead them on a chase after nothing.”

          .

          The underbrush was so shallow that Keith found he did not have to cut through it. He stepped over the brush, mostly, following the rustle and chirp of the anteater creature as it walked through the brush and occasionally popped up to see if Keith was still there. Keith did not want to leave a trail to follow, and that forced him to go slower than he would have liked.

          The leaves of the trees had an odd translucency that cast the forest in soft purple light, like what happened at twilight when the sun was still far below the horizon and the clouds had just turned white and lavender. In a different situation, Keith would have flicked on the light on his helmet, but he did not want to make himself easier to see. He could no longer hear the steps of the soldiers in the forest, but he could not be too cautious.

          They only walked for a short while, and Keith was reluctant to admit he was relieved when they stopped at the base of a tree. He was still sore from the fall, and his feet were tired from riving his steps out of the moss that seemed to grow across the entire forest floor. The anteater creature ducked halfway into a hollow amongst the tree roots, and it gestured for Keith to follow.

          Keith did not have much of a choice. He sighed and got on his knees and squeezed into the hole after the creature.

          The inside hollow was comprised of the width of the tree, with enough space for Keith to sit comfortably if he kept his legs tucked in. Sets of staircases were carved into the sides of the hollow, and they trailed up to separate spaces like rooms in the tree. A strange rock-like object hung from smaller niche’s fixed in the walls, where they emitted soft yellow light the same temperature as the purple light outside. The anteater creature ascended the stairs and was gone into one of the rooms for a moment before returning, another anteater creature in tow.

          The new anteater creature moved worriedly, a larger cloth in its front paws and a baby on its back. The baby appeared to be dozing, but the new creature was all business as it scooted past the other to get to Keith. Keith saw it had darker fur than the first, and it halted on the bottom stair, looking to Keith expectantly. It chirped, and then made a motion to its stomach and the baby, waving the blanket and chirping again. Keith merely blinked.

          “… Oh,” he muttered when the creature gestured over it stomach like it was round. “Alright.”

          Keith shifted out his legs, and the darker creature managed to tuck the blanket around Keith’s torso. It was oddly warm, and Keith nodded his thanks as the creature turned to the other and posed triumphantly. It dropped to four feet after, and the lighter creature descended the stairs when the baby roused, its tongue flicking. The lighter creature transferred the baby to sit atop its pack, and the baby settled with its paws around its neck. The darker creature turned back to Keith, and it motioned to the lighter with a questioning chirp. The baby watched Keith, its eyes wide like it wanted to know as well.

          “… He’s not here right now,” Keith recognized what they wanted to know. “It’s complicated.”

          He did not know how he would explain his predicament to creatures he could hardly talk to, and he did not want to divulge anyway. The creatures seemed to understand, and they did not press further. Keith shook his head and looked out the exit.

          “Actually,” Keith decided, “I should go find him—them. My team. They’re probably looking for me.”

          Keith swallowed at the hasty correction. He took the blanket off his abdomen and placed it before the confused creatures.

          “I should go.” Keith turned to crawl out on his knees. “Thank you.”

          The darker anteater creature chirped and reached out for him, but the lighter one held it back and shook its head knowingly. Keith swallowed again, and nodded once in return, shuffling out on his hands and knees.

          It was not safe for him to stay too long in one place, anyway. And it was not fair of him to put out the anteater family like that—to risk them being caught in the way of the Galra, while they had lives and a baby of their own to think about. Keith’s heart squeezed at the thought, and he stood hurriedly from leaving the hallow.

          He hardly caught sight of it in his peripheral, but his reflexes were sharp enough for him to activate his bayard and swing it out with only half a thought.

          “Halt,” a drove of advancing sentries ordered, stepping emotionlessly over their sliced comrade. “Do not resist arrest.”

          He had made a mistake.

          .

          The officer rushed into the room and saluted.

          “Commander Kalyps! The red paladin has been captured!”

          “This is sooner than I expected,” Kalyps turned to address Officer Kir. “Is he being taken to ship X-15?”

          “Yes, Commander.” Kir stood a little taller. “It is my scouts who found him, hiding amongst the tree roots.”

          “I will keep note of that,” Kalyps collected her helmet. “Tell the crew I will be there shortly. We will depart when Commanding Officer Odix relays that the space above Aygya is clear of the Altean castle.”

          “Yes, Commander,” Kir affirmed, then hesitated. “And, Commander…”

          “Yes, Officer Kir?”

          “There is something odd about the red paladin.”

          Kalyps said nothing, waiting for Kir to expound. Kir hesitated, mulling over how she wanted to phrase it.

          “I do not know if it is something of the flora or atmosphere of this planet…” she began. “But the paladin has the scent of a Galra female with child.”

          Kalyps just stared, and Kir nearly wilted under the gaze of her cold eyes. It was not uncommon that Galra females noticed a scent change when another was pregnant, but to propose it was coming from a human male was preposterous. Kalyps’ stare changed to a grimace, and Kir knew she had made a mistake assuming.

          “There are no flora on this planet that do such things,” Kalyps’ tone was biting. “Do not be foolish. The paladin is a human male.”

          “I know, but Auntie—Commander,” Kir corrected, and flushed deeply at her slipup. “I know what I smell. You can check for yourself.”

          The mistake did not go unnoticed. Kalyps walked forward, slow and steady like a predator as she stopped beside Kir. She did not speak, and Kir blinked as tears threatened to spill, her throat and mind in knots as the silence suffocated her.

          “And I will check,” Kalyps said at last. “You are being foolish if you think I will be soft with you just because you are my sister’s daughter. We will discuss this once I speak with Emperor Zarkon in the next star system.”

          Kir nodded once, curtly. Kalyps departed from the room, and Kir let the tears fall under the secrecy of her visor.

          .

          “I don’t like this,” Pidge hissed over the intercom. “They’re separating us.”

          “We don’t have a choice,” Shiro replied. “We don’t know which ship they took him in.”

          “He could be back on Aygya,” Hunk pipped in. “Maybe he got away, and they’re looking for him.”

          “We’re trying to find a way to land now,” Allura updated from the castle. “The fleet has thinned, but it is difficult with only one ship.”

          “I wish Keith had a way we could track him, like the Red Lion,” Hunk sighed. “Those trees blocking our communicators aren’t helping.”

          “We stick with the original plan,” Shiro ordered. “Keep an eye out for any changes in the ships.”

          “Roger.”

          Lance clutched tighter to the handles. He was wound so tight he thought his voice would crack if he spoke, and his throat tasted bitter and his shoulders were cramped and did not want anyone to know the plethora of horrid emotions he was feeling. He merely pressed harder on the handles, speeding as fast as he could towards the fleeing battleship still so far ahead.

          “Hey, Lance?” Hunk noticed his silence and spoke up. “You okay?”

          Lance’s heart skipped. He leaned further forward in the seat and took a breath.

          “Yeah,” he forced his voice as level as he could. He hoped it was enough.

          “Leave him alone,” Pidge scolded in a whisper. “He’s probably just as worked up as the rest of us.”

          “Yeah, yeah,” Hunk sighed again. “You’re right.”

          Lance eased a little knowing his friends felt the same. His shoulders relaxed slightly, and he let the gentle thrum of the Blue Lion soothe him. It was all he had to comfort him, and it was all he needed in the moment. Until suddenly:

          Screaming—everything was _screaming._ Lance jerked back so harshly his lion flipped, and he was lost as everything around him was in motion and everything in his mind was painful and loud. He saw the outline of Keith against tall trees, and then he saw thick underbrush, and then he saw the inside of a prison cell and Galra soldiers coming to do something, _something,_ what were they _doing—_

          “Lance!” Shiro’s strong voice called over the intercom. “Are you okay? What happened?”

          “Whoa!” Pidge cut in. “Are you guys seeing this?”

          The visions vanished. Lance slumped in his seat, holding his head and groaning like he had just woken up from a drunken stupor. He had the worst headache he could possibly imagine, like some otherworldly force had shoved its hand in his head and jumbled his brains about. He almost wanted to throw up, but he knew there we more pressing matters, and he forced himself upright in the seat. His voice sounded thick and misplaced.

          “Yeah, I’m fine… What’s the matter?”

          “It’s the Red Lion!” Pidge exclaimed. “It’s attacking from the _inside!”_

          Onscreen, the warship was slowing and tilting sidelong. What looked like bursts of flames sprouted from its hangar dock, followed immediately by bright laser flashes. Hunk and Pidge swooped closer to the carnage.

          “That means Keith is okay, right?” Hunk sounded excited. “That he got back to his lion?”

          “Maybe…” Shiro was distracted from Lance’s predicament for now, and honestly so was Lance. “But…”

          A beat.

          “It could mean he’s in danger.”

          .

          Keith wiped under his mouth. There was blood there.

          Keith had been able to take out most of the sentries, but he froze like a dumb fucking deer on the road when a troop of Galra soldiers surrounded him from all sides. And they had taken his hesitation as a chance to handcuff him, as well as confiscate his bayard and helmet and anything else they could remove. They had wrestled him towards a transportation pod, and they had hit him across the face when he resisted. Keith was still after that, and he allowed them to take him out of the pod and guide him up the ramp into a battleship. They put his helmet and bayard on a counter near the cells, and they had locked him in one without a single word.

          Any other time, he would have fought. Any other time, he could have.

          Keith slumped against the wall in frustration. The cell had no windows, but the door was partway transparent, like a solid hologram. He could see his helmet and bayard on the counter, almost as a tease, and his eyes glanced around the cell. If he could just get to his helmet, the ship was out of the way of the trees, and he should be able to reach his teammates from there. The generators that produced the door were designed to be out of the cell, but maybe his shield could…

          The door from the hallway slid open.

          .

          Kalyps stood before the officers of the crew.

          “Listen well,” she ordered, and paused for effect. “I want you to break the paladin’s limbs.”

          The officers glanced at one another. They dared not murmur. One officer, who was too young and inexperienced to know better, spoke up nervously.

          “Commander Kalyps… Why would we break his limbs? How would we?”

          “I have not finished,” she replied, and the officer gulped. She indicated to the bend at the elbow in her own armor.

          “It is easy enough to twist the joint here, and the knees work much the same,” she explained. “The inner thighs are also unarmored.”

          The officers nodded. Kalyps held her hands behind her back and paced the length of the hall.

          “I know his type.” She bared her teeth. “He will fight, he will not cry, even if his very life is threatened to be extinguished. I would prefer if all his limbs are broken, but if you can only manage to break one of his legs, that will suffice.”

          She stopped before the officer who questioned her.

          “I want him unable to run.”

          .

          A troop of a dozen or so Galra officers filed into the room. Keith backed to the middle of the cell, slightly crouched and his skin prickling in warning.

          They stood in rows of three and said nothing, and one of them approached the cell door. They put their hand on the lock panel, and the door dissipated. They did not carry weapons. Keith did not know what that meant, and he hardly had time to question it before they rushed forward.

          “Remember—his legs!”

          It came from the officer by the lock panel: a soft, feminine voice too sweet for a Galra to have. The rest of them squeezed into the cell, and Keith only managed to kick over the first solider before he was grabbed from all sides. His limbs were jerked away from his body, so that he was forced into exposing himself in a star shape, and they lifted him off the floor. He thrashed against them, although he should have known it would do nothing, his rational thoughts drowned out by his panicked heartbeat. Three officers grabbed his right leg, and he made special effort to tear it away as they locked their hands around his shin and thigh. They began to twist, and Keith struggled with all his strength, and one of the officers hit his ribs to make him stop.

          Keith froze. His knee snapped.

          Keith felt the pain all the way up his side, like a stab of terrible chills. Keith gasped, and the officers released his leg, letting it hang and drop with an excruciating swing. Keith tasted bile in the back of his throat, but he clenched his teeth and held it in: held in all signs of pain and weakness, anything that would give the Galra pleasure from torturing him. They moved for his other leg, and Keith simply clenched harder, letting them twist his leg without a fuss.

          They came to break his legs. He had to let them. He could not risk them hurting anywhere else.

          Hot, angry tears he could not stop welled in his eyes. He stared up at the dumb, blank ceiling, waiting for his leg to break.

          _I’m sorry._

He did not know who he said it to.

          .

          The Red Lion broke from the ship in a flurry of explosions. She whizzed past the Yellow Lion and Green Lion, on a mission that did not involve the collapsing battleship. Hunk and Pidge turned to follow her before she left them completely.

          “The Red Lion broke out of the ship!” Pidge said as she rushed to keep up with the fastest lion. “I think she’s heading back to Aygya!”

          “Keith must be in trouble.” Shiro swung his lion around. “Lance—let’s follow where the Red Lion is going.”

          Lance turned with Shiro. They blasted back the way they came, leaving the Galra warship to disappear in the distance.

          “How does it look over Aygya, Princess?”

          “Not promising,” Allura answered Shiro. “The castle is having trouble combating so many ships, and the particle barrier is almost maxed out.”

          “We’re on our way,” Shiro assured her. “The Red Lion seems to know where Keith is.”

          Lance remembered the visions: the unsettling, warped images of Keith in the forest, and the sudden feeling of pain that came after. It reminded him of the time they found the Blue Lion and they all saw the vison of Voltron, although this was more terrifying, and Lance had the notion the images were personalized and meant only for him. He also did not know where or who they came from, and that was the worst part of it.

          The Blue Lion purred in the back of his mind. It was a calming action, like when his mother would reach out and stroke his back, and Lance smiled a little at the memory. He edged in closer to Shiro, letting himself believe all of this would be over soon and Keith would come back to him as bitter and temperamental as ever.

          “Thanks, Blue.”

          Lance could swear he felt the Blue Lion smirk.

          .

          “He didn’t fight back?”

          “No—I mean, he did the first time,” Kir spoke quickly; after the incident earlier, she was not eager to talk to her aunt again. “But after that, he just let the officers do it without a fight.”

          “Something is not right here.” Kalyps frowned and tapped her fingers against her arm. “And you said he cried?”

          “Yes.” Kir shivered. “That was the worst part of it.”

          “Why?”

          “Because he… did not cry from pain… He cried from _anger.”_

          Kalyps looked at Kir in bafflement. Kir would not meet her gaze, and it took all her will not to collapse and rub her arms for comfort.

          “His eyes were _dead,”_ Kir’s voice wavered. “He went silent, and just _accepted_ what was happening. He did not move, he did not cry out, and he just stared at the ceiling while the tears fell from his eyes. Commander—his eyes, they were so _unsettling._ It’s like he didn’t care.”

          Kir wanted to cry again herself. Kalyps’ frowned deepened, and she scowled. She trudged out the door to go and get to the bottom of this.

          “I am going to see for myself.”

          .

          The floor was not cool, and it did not feel nice as the sweat from Keith’s face dripped down to soak into his frazzled hair. He remained where the soldiers let him fall, on his side facing the door with his elbows and knees broken. His arms and legs swung like lame windchimes, and he dare not try to move them as they swelled against the inside of his armor, his shallow breathing disrupted by every pulse of pain in his joints. He could feel the tracts of tears being slowly washed away by sweat.

          It was an odd contrast, really.

          The hallway door opened. Keith quieted his breathing, and a single solider entered from the outside. They stood across the room, and Keith had to shift his head to see them.

          It appeared to be an aged Galra female. Her armor was maroon, and a pair of yellow eyes adorned the chest plate. She had a displeased expression on her face as she looked at Keith there on the floor, her arms crossed and her legs apart. She had absolutely no time for nonsense.

          “It is a pleasure to meet you, paladin.”

          She had a soft voice, like the officer by the lock panel, but she used it in a mean way that gave Keith an immediate sense of fear. She watched his face for a change in expression, and he merely stared at her, sidelong on the floor. Her disposition did not change either. She examined him over once more.

          “I heard you did not put up much of a fight when the crew came to break your limbs.”

          Keith’s throat tightened, but he did not swallow. She checked her clawed fingers like he bored her.

          “Why is that? I heard you are usually the most vicious of the paladins.”

          Keith did not reply. She approached the cell slowly, letting the silence hang between them.

          “Red paladin…”

          A strange look came to her face when she stopped before the cell door. Her nose scrunched up, and her eyebrows furrowed, and she viewed Keith like she was on the borderline of getting furious. It was a complete change from her cool speech just moments ago, and fear quickened Keith’s heart.

          “Tell me: Do all human males smell the way you do?”

          Keith felt his heartbeat echoing against the floor. She grimaced, and the edges of her teeth showed.

          “Is it some tactic you use against the female guard, smelling like you are with child?”

          Still: Keith did not speak. He had to make it seem like he was unaffected, and that made her grimace again. She slammed her hands against the holographic door, but Keith did not flinch.

          “It is not wise to insult me, paladin,” she snarled. “Your life is in my hands.”

          She slammed against the door again. “You enjoy mocking my pain, is that it? Making it seem like even you can have what I never can?”

          She was so upset that she shook. Keith said nothing to correct or confirm her, and she pushed from the door to go to the lock panel. She was only interrupted by the hallway door sliding open and a solider rushing in.

          “Commander Kalyps!” The solider saluted. “The Red Lion has escaped!”

          _“What?”_

          Keith had the smallest quirk of the lips. Good kitty.

          .

          Kalyps pounded her hands on the control panel. _“How did this happen?”_

“I don’t know!” Odix swiped through his own control panel. “Reports from X-11 say that the Red Lion started attacking on its own!”

          “Impossible,” Kalyps hissed. “Its paladin is _here.”_

          “Reports from X-9 say the other paladins abandoned following the ships soon after,” Odix continued. “They apparently have chosen to follow the Red Lion instead.”

          Kalyps swore under her breath. Odix typed to try to scavenge more information, until a bright red warning popped up on the screen.

          “Commander!” Odix’ eyes went wide. “The Red Lion, it’s— “

          The ship rocked with a loud boom. Kalyps nearly went flying, but her nails dug into the control panel, and she remained standing. She heard the last of the transmission as it flickered.

          “—entered the Aygyan atmosphere!”

          .

          “Paladins!” Allura cheered when they returned. “The Red Lion has just entered the Aygyan atmosphere under heavy fire!”

          “It entered the atmosphere at full speed!” Coran observed the burning figure. “What is it doing? It’s going to crash into the surface of the planet!”

          “I’ll follow after it to find Keith,” Shiro decided. “Hunk, Pidge, Lance—you give us and the castle covering fire. I’ll relay when I’ve found Keith.”

          Pidge clicked her tongue, and Hunk hummed. “Got it.”

          Shiro dove towards Aygya after the Red Lion. Lance flipped the Blue Lion sideways, hitting a sentry ship that was going at the Green Lion from behind. The sentry ships were sparse now, and there was only one fully operational battleship. Pidge and Hunk went after that while Lance and the castle covered them like before. They were disrupted when a loud crash sounded over Shiro’s intercom.

          “Shiro!” Lance swung towards Aygya, where he could only see the cloud cover. “What happened?”

          “No—I’m okay!” Shiro just sounded bewildered. “The Red Lion impacted a grounded ship!”

          The image popped up on their screens. Lance saw the back of the Red Lion poking out of a large battleship, the ship itself forced to the side and nearly into the communication tower beside it. The Red Lion had her back legs perched on the outside, and it appeared to be digging or fighting with whatever was inside. She did not fire her weapons, perhaps out of concern that her paladin would be hurt too.

          “Quiznak!” Coran cried. “The Red Lion used its speed to crack the hull of the ship!”

          Lance grinned like that was the best news in the universe.

“That mean Keith’s there.”

.

The jerk of the ship caused Keith to skid a foot back in his cell. He nearly vomited from pain when his joints moved, but he took large breaths and kept his reflex under control. His bayard and helmet also fell from the table, and he could not see where they had landed.

An incredible anger burned in his brain, and he knew instantly it was the Red Lion, furious as ever as she ripped through the ship to look for him. He reached out to her to say he was alright, and she growled in response to the lie. But Keith could feel the affection there, and a soft purr began in his mind as she continued to tear through the ship and soldiers called to one another in a panic. He tried to tell her it might be better to let one of the other paladins find him since he could hardly move and his helmet and bayard were somewhere on the floor, and that made her back off just a little, another growl humming in his mind. She wanted to be the one to save him.

He promised to see her as soon as he could. Begrudgingly, she hopped out of the ship, showing Keith briefly the image of the other lions coming down from the clouds. He thanked her in silence, relief settling over his heart.

They were going to be okay.

Keith did not have to wait long for the door to be rived open. Shiro came in with his robotic arm aglow, the pink shinning in his eyes as they landed on Keith. He quickly used his hand to open the cell door and enter.

“Hey, buddy…” Shiro crouched beside him. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, but,” he winced when Shiro moved him. “My arms and legs—they’re broken.”

“… Alright,” Shiro’s voice became softer, but Keith could hear the edge of anger. “I’ll try to be careful when I carry you.”

“My helmet and bayard fell to the floor somewhere,” Keith added.

Shiro nodded once, and Keith tried to keep his composure as Shiro lifted him and his knees were jostled. Shiro put Keith’s helmet on his head as soon as he found it, and he hooked the bayard in one finger while he carried Keith as gently as he could. He called the team when they entered the hallway.

“I got Keith from the prisoner cells.”

“Nice!” Pidge applauded from the other end. “Did you find him in one piece, I hope?”

“They broke his arms and legs, but he’s awake.”

Keith exhaled through his nose wryly. “I can talk if you want.”

“Keith!” Lance almost yelled into the intercom, and Keith got a little twinge of affection; he heard Lance’s blaster go off. “Aw, babe—you’re okay!”

“Yeah…” Keith smiled a little. “I’m okay.”

.

Lance parked the Blue Lion beside the Red Lion in the hangar. He slipped down the ramp out of his lion as fast as he could, making it just in time for the Black Lion to land and Allura to open a wormhole. The hangar door closed, and the Black Lion’s mouth opened, and Shiro exited off the ramp with Keith slowly. Lance wasted no time shoving past Hunk and Pidge to get to them.

“Keith!”

Keith’s hair was a mess, and his face was streaked with sweat, and his armor was muddy, but he was still the most beautiful thing Lance had ever seen. His arms were crossed in an odd way over his abdomen so they would not move, and he looked to Lance with such visible pain in his eyes that Lance’s heart hurt.

“Aw, babe…” Lance brushed the wet bangs from Keith’s forehead. “What did they do to you?”

“Broke my arms and legs,” Keith quipped dryly, and he did not smile, which made Lance even more worried.

Hunk wiped the small tears from his eyes. “They hurt our brave, poor Keith,” he sniffled. “Shot him from the sky, and broke his arms and legs.”

“We should get him to a cryopod immediately,” Allura chimed in over the castle intercom. “Coran and I will meet you there from the bridge.”

Shiro began to walk there. “Understood.”

Lance stayed right by Keith’s side for the whole walk, and he gave Keith puppy eyes and blew him a kiss as Shiro placed him in the pod. Keith had enough attitude left to roll his eyes before the pod closed, and Lance smirked. _There_ was his Keith.

“His injuries are not too severe,” Coran said as he set up the healing process. “We’ll need to keep him in there for a varga or so to make sure all his joint tissue line up correctly.”

Coran jolted suddenly. His jaw dropped, and he stared at the hologram in awe, and Lance’s shoulders tensed in fear. He rushed to see what Coran was gaping at.

“Coran—what’s the matter?”

Coran jumped again. He swished the screen away, and all Lance glimpsed was a list in Altean.

“Ah, nothing!” Coran excused, and laughed nervously. “I was just surprised by how clean some of the breaks are.”

Hunk peeled his face away from watching Keith heal as closely as possible. “What does that mean?”

“It could mean the Galra tortured him.” Allura tapped her chin. “But, I don’t know if they had enough time for that. It could also mean he let them do it.”

Lance frowned. “He let them? That doesn’t sound like Keith. Why would he let them?”

Coran sweated where he stood. Shiro shrugged like it did not bother him why.

“Maybe the situation best called for it. Keith isn’t stupid. We can just ask him when he gets out.”

Still, Lance was not totally convinced. He hardly noticed when Pidge pushed away from the pod also and muscled Hunk towards the door.

“I’m going to get my laptop and bring it back here!” she called. “We can use the time until he gets better to figure out a work around electromagnetic interference like Aygya’s so we don’t get separated again! Hunk—I need you to help me carry everything.”

“Of course,” Hunk sighed, but he allowed himself to be shoved out the door. Coran followed Pidge’s lead, guiding Allura to the door with a strained smile.

“And we need to give the defense systems a once-over,” he excused. “We’ll be back in a little under a varga!”

Allura gave him a quizzical look, but he ignored it and let the door shut behind him. That left only Shiro in the room with Lance, and he felt Lance’s unease.

“Hey.” Shiro put a hand on his shoulder. “Everything is going to be fine. You’ll see.”

“I don’t know…” Lance stared at Keith peacefully resting in the cryopod. “Something feels… off.”

.

Coran hustled Allura to the bridge, and he did a twirl in front of her she raised a brow at.

“Aha! I believe I have figured out the mystery!”

“Coran, what are you talking about?” Allura sighed, but her mustachioed mentor was already on the move. He ran to the control panel and popped up the screen.

“The clean breaks—everything! It all makes sense!”

Allura furrowed her eyebrows and crossed her arms, waiting for him to explain. Coran cleared his throat and pointed at the hologram.

“Firstly: the broken limbs. I have reason to believe Keith did not struggle against having them broken.”

Coran pulled up the data, and he pointed to a piece at the top.

“A small bruise was found near the Red Paladin’s ribs. It is safe to assume he got it around the same time his limbs were broken, but! But _when exactly_ did he get it?”

Allura’s furrow deepened as she followed the line of thought. Coran expanded more results.

“The right leg was not a clean break; Keith fought with that one, it appears. I have reason to believe he gave the Galra trouble with his first leg, they hit him in the ribs, and he allowed them to break the rest of his limbs without a fight.”

“Why?” Allura was losing her patience with this. “You’re not making sense.”

“Remember!” Coran held up a finger and smirked. “The strange note that popped up this morning, saying that someone accessed the medical bay?”

Allura’s expression did not change. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“The one who accessed the medical bay was _Keith.”_

Coran pulled up different results from the cryopod. He pointed to the area that showed the DNA profile and cleared his throat again to continue.

“The Red Paladin had reason to believe he was sick: he felt nauseous from time to time, he gained a little weight, and his back might have been hurting him… So, when everyone was occupied with putting on their armor, he went to check. And he found…

Coran scrolled down.

“… there was now a Red Paladin Junior.”

Allura’s eyes grew wide. She covered her mouth with her fingers, and she took a step back.

“Oh my stars…”

**Cryopod A: Examination Complete**

**Hormone levels elevated due to first stages of pregnancy.**

          “Exactly!” Coran gestured outward. “That’s what brings this all together!”

          He stood regally, twirling his moustache.

          “This morning, Keith found out he is pregnant,” Coran put it together at last. “It did not stop him from the mission, and he crashed on Aygya and was captured by the Galra. They wanted to break his legs, and he fought with them at first, but he stopped when he realized they would hurt him elsewhere if he did. He let them break the rest of his limbs so they wouldn’t target his torso. He was trying to protect his child.”

          “Oh my…” Allura repeated. Then: “Poor Keith.”

          “Yes.” Coran looked at the results solemnly. “He must have been so frightened.”

          Allura nodded slowly. The slightest pressure of tears touched her eyes, but not enough to make her cry.

          “Coran…” Allura spoke after a moment. “What is Keith going to do: having a child, in this situation we’re in?”

          “I don’t know, Princess.” Coran’s shoulders slumped and he shook his head. “But, I think it is best to leave up to Keith to decide. He is the one going through the entire ordeal.”

          “… Alright,” Allura took her advisor’s sage recommendation. “We can work it out as a team when he’s ready.”

          .

          Kalyps knelt before the hologram. “Emperor Zarkon, the paladins of Voltron have fled.

          _“That is most disappointing,”_ Emperor Zarkon rumbled from the hologram. _“Your plans usually go over so well, Commander Kalyps.”_

          “I understand, sire,” Kalyps said, and she meant it. “I take full responsibility for the failure. I did not account for the unexpected.”

          _“The unexpected?”_ his voice had an edge of inquiry. _“Unexpected how?”_

          “I did not consider that the lions could attack without their paladins.”

          _“That is unusual… I did not think the paladins were bonded that close to their lions in such a short time.”_

          “I will take it into account next time, sire.”

          _“As you should.”_ Emperor Zarkon narrowed his eyes. _“You are dismissed.”_

          “Vrepit sa.”

          The transmission flickered off. Kalyps rose and stood there for a moment, the room quiet save for the march of sentries outside the door.

          Kalyps looked out the window to the expanse of stars, where no matter anywhere she went in the universe it seemed either her or her contemporaries had conquered it for the Galra Empire. She had done it for so long now she could hardly remember a time when she was not overseeing planets: when she was young and wanted to fall in love, when she had the dream of finding somewhere full of beautiful flora and starting a family of her own. She was old, now, and had been for long enough that she had abandoned that dream. Her legacy of conquered planets was all she had left to her, and people were working against her to undo that.

          She had not been fair to Kir before. Her niece had no way of knowing the source of the inner turmoil she never let show. Kir had simply relayed her the situation, and her observation had turned out to be true, and now she was probably almost in tears as she waited for Kalyps to scold her. She had always been so sensitive, and Kalyps sighed at the girl who wanted to join the high ranks of the military to impress her mother. Her mother was excited that her daughter wanted to follow in the footsteps of her Aunt Kalyps, but Kalyps knew Kir could become something as lowly as an exotic fern shopkeeper and Pelny would be impressed.

          Kalyps pushed the button for the intercom. “Send Officer Kir to my quarters. I wish to speak with her.”

          Kalyps was still staring at the stars when the door opened and Kir stepped through. She saluted, and she gazed intently at the floor, refusing to brave her aunt’s eyes. Kalyps turned to her, and she did not let the silence linger like she usually did.

          “You were correct. The Red Paladin did smell like he was with child.”

          Kir raised her head a smidge, just enough for Kalyps to see her blink. Kalyps had the smallest trace of a smile, and she approached Kir calmly.

          “I should not have reacted the way I did when you told me. For that, I am sorry.”

          “I-It’s okay, Commander,” Kir’s words caught in her throat. “I know my place.”

          “And I know mine. My rank does not put me above owing you manners. You are still family.”

          Kalyps put her hand atop Kir’s head: a small gesture of affection she soon removed, so Kir could straighten up and look at her in surprise. Her expressions were always so grand, and Kalyps allowed herself to smile at her wide, child-like eyes.

          “I’m happy you were able to get away from the paladins safely. I don’t know what your mother would do if she lost you.”

          “She cares about you too, Auntie,” Kir said, and stiffened at her repeated mistake. “I mean—Commander Kalyps.”

          Kalyps let it slide this once. A soft chuckle rumbled in her chest, and Kalyps remembered how beside herself Pelny had been the day Kalyps went to join the military.

          “Yes… I suppose she does.”

          .

          Keith awoke when the cleaning cycle switched off. The door disappeared, and his knees bowed reflexively, but he managed to tighten his leg muscles and not stumble. It was a huge relief they no longer caused him pain, but he did not have much time to celebrate before Lance swooped him out of the cryopod.

          “Babe!”

          They had always been in the odd situation of being able to pick one another up, and Lance did not care to ask permission before he yanked Keith off the ground and smothered his face in kisses. He eventually let Keith down so he could use his hands to cup his head, and by then Keith had about enough.

          _“Lance.”_ Keith pushed away enough to talk. “I still need to breathe.”

          _“Babe,”_ Lance countered, and he nuzzled his face hard enough to make Keith groan in annoyance. “Let me be glad you’re okay!”

          “Gross,” Pidge commented from the floor, but grinned and shut her laptop. “You should know that no one can get rid of Keith _that_ easily.”

          “He’s too tough for that!” Hunk did not bother waiting for Keith and Lance to separate, and he gave them both a hug. “You’d need the force of _ten_ Galra fleets to take Keith down!”

          “I’m glad you made it through,” Shiro got in amongst the shower of affection. “We were all worried about you, buddy.”

          “It was the _worst!”_ Hunk was almost in tears. “We thought you were dead!”

          Pidge sighed and shook her head at Hunk’s melodrama. Across the room, Keith looked to Coran, and Coran met his eyes knowingly. Keith understood, and he gave a slight nod.

          Allura saw the exchange, and she clapped her hands together. “You all must be hungry! Keith, you can tell us what happened while you eat in the dining area.”

          “I might be a while,” Keith admitted. “I promised Red I would see her as soon as I could.”

          It was as good excuse as any. Lance gave him a questioning look, but he pretended not to notice.

          “We’ll meet you there!” Hunk called as Allura ushered them out of the medical bay.

Coran retrieved the clothes Shiro had gotten from Keith’s room, and Keith almost did not want to meet his gaze as he approached, a strange sense of shame making his wrists tense. Coran respected that, and he simply stared at the pile of clothes.

          “I saw the results from the cryopod,” he said after a moment. “Allura and I noticed that you accessed the medical bay this morning, but we did not want to pry into your business. We figured you would tell us if something was wrong.”

          Keith said nothing. Coran dusted off Keith’s red jacket.

          “But, the child… It wasn’t harmed at all.”

          Keith exhaled; his lungs felt all prickly, and he did not know what emotion that was. Coran held the pile of clothes up and smiled.

          “Just barely 50 quintants old,” he finished. “You got a fighter in there.”

          Keith hummed in reply. He took the offered clothes, and he looked up to Coran after a beat.

          “… Thank you.”

          Coran smiled again. He left Keith at that, moving towards the door to join the team at the dining table.

          “Only Allura and I know for now. You can tell the others when you’re ready.”

          The icy fear of the unknown settled in his heart. He watched Coran exit through the door, and he wondered what he would even say.

          .

          “Hey, Red.”

          He leaned against her giant claw. He heard her purr in his mind, and he let the rumbling overtake his other thoughts. A gentle prodding also came from her, and he knew what she wanted to know. He sighed and patted his stomach.

          “No, they’re okay.”

          The Red Lion’s purring intensified. Keith noticed before that he was already a little thicker in the stomach, and his hips were filling out, but he tried not to think about how much he hated it. It would only make the Red Lion worry even more, and he did not want to upset her further. He slumped down the side of her claw to sit on the floor.

          “I just… I don’t know what I’m going to do about them.”

          The Red Lion’s purring softened now. Keith fixed his gloves, not enthusiastic to admit his feelings even to himself.

          “I mean, it’s not like I can keep them, right? It’s not fair to them. I’m constantly putting them in danger. Take what happened today.”

          The Red Lion pushed, like she wanted to scold Keith for thinking such things but did not want to scare him. Keith bopped his elbow against her claw.

          “Be rational, Red.”

          That was not her or Keith’s strong suit. She always knew him to be so impulsive, but she could understand why he wanted to be careful about this. It was not his life at risk.

          The door from the castle swished open. Who else to saunter in but Lance: the person Keith wanted to talk to the least.

          “Dinner delivery!”

          He had a plate of food goo in each hand. Keith narrowed his eyes, and the Red Lion growled protectively in his mind at Lance’s approach, but Keith told her it was okay because he did love Lance a little bit. The Red Lion gave a prick of suspicion at that, but ultimately backed off so the paladins could converse.

          Keith frowned. “I said I would meet everyone at the table to eat.”

          “I figured you’d want some now.” Lance sat cross-legged beside him, and his smile went smug. “And it gives us an excuse to have some _alone time.”_

          _“Stop.”_ Keith ripped the plate from his hand with a scowl.

Lance just laughed. Then, his look got a little forlorn, and he stared down at the plate of food goo in his lap.

“Besides… I wanted to talk to you about something.”

Keith received a jolt of fear. What Coran said about the results from the cryopod being just between him and Allura did little to reassure Keith; maybe Lance had seen, or he had figured it all out another way. Lance still stared at his plate, poking at the goo and watching as it jiggled. His mouth twisted nervously as he considered what to say.

“Are you… okay? Like, really okay.”

Keith tried to remain as placid as possible. He steeled his features and set his plate atop his knees.

“Yeah, I said I was.”

The awkward tension thrummed in the air. Each said something they wanted to say or hide, and it was painfully obvious.

Lance pierced his goo with his spoon. “Okay, because… You don’t seem like it.”

Keith got a spark of anger as he felt like Lance was trying to guilt or smooze the truth out of him. He might also just have been a concerned boyfriend, but Keith was never one to expect the best conclusion.

Keith scowled. “And why is that?”

“You just seem… off.” Lance was used to Keith’s anger, and he thought he could soothe it like times before. “Like, you haven’t wanted to be touched or affectionate for days, and in the battle earlier, you were, I don’t know… out of sync with your lion, I guess? And then you were shot down to Aygya, and everything else happened…”

Lance gripped his spoon.

“Coran told us the breaks in your arms and legs were clean—that you probably let the Galra break them. I don’t know if that is what really happened, but that doesn’t sound like the usual you.”

Keith looked away furiously. Lance did not know the exact reason Keith had been acting differently, but he was damn close to figuring it out, and _that_ was unusual for ever-oblivious Lance. Keith grimaced at the thought of Lance unraveling it all and did not reply. Lance frowned and sat straighter.

“Look, if it’s something I did— “

“No, Lance.”

Keith’s words came out more venomous than he meant them to. That made Lance bristle, and he set aside his plate to lean towards Keith.

“Keith, what is it that you can’t tell me?” His tone had switched now. “Do you not trust me or something? I love you so, so much, and if something is hurting you, I want to help. If it is something I, or one of the other paladins, or even the Galra did, I want to— “

_“No, Lance.”_

Keith’s voice quivered, and Lance shut up right then and there. Keith’s plate clattered on his knees, and he could not bear to watch it and shoved it away, almost making the food goo spill as it landed next to Lance’s plate with a sound like shattering glass. Or that could have been Keith’s heart, splintering to pieces inside of him; he was not quite sure. He wanted to cry, and he knew he could not: not in front of Lance of all people, who cared for Keith too much for his own good and took every heartache as his own. Instead, Keith put his face on his knees, and he backed up as close to the Red Lion as he could.

“No, Lance, it is not about what you or the Galra or anyone else did—It’s about what _I_ did.”

Lance was now all electrified worry, and he tasted metal in his mouth. He reached out to comfort Keith, and he felt a sudden burst of warning in his mind, like when he stepped too close to a campfire. It left a searing pain like a rope burn, and Lance blinked up at the Red Lion.

He paused and whispered, “So, it was you…”

Keith did not notice, all wrapped up in on himself. “Do you remember the pill that Allura and Coran made for Pidge and me, the one that… you know?”

Lance faced back to Keith. His hands were threaded so tight into his hair his knuckles had to be white, and he sounded nigh on the cusp of sobbing. Lance understood now that Keith did not want to be approached so rashly like this—weak in the front of his own emotions—and Lance wanted to be respectful of that. He rested next to Keith against the Red Lion’s claw gently and put his arm over Keith’s shoulders.

His voice was honey-sweet, “Yeah, babe… I remember.”

“Well, I didn’t take it every day.”

Lance looked down at Keith in question. Keith shifted on his knees and let out a shuttering breath.

“I made me feel sick, and with everything going on, I didn’t always remember to. I just—God, Lance, I don’t know what to _do.”_

“It’s okay.” Lance stroked his arm softly. “In a day or two it’ll be over, and you can— “

“No, that’s not _it.”_

He tore away from his knees, almost in anger instead of fright. He stared at Lance with eyes so wet and hurt it made his heart feel like the very chest around it had collapsed: like a bird with all its little bones crushed by cruel children who thought destroying its cage was some fun game. Keith reached out for Lance with shaking hands, and Lance did not think before he pulled him close, close enough to stop the agony and stomping feet on his heart. Keith covered his face in Lance’s neck, and he hardly had the breath to speak.

“Lance, I’m pregnant.”

He said the words with too much pain: too much uncertainly, too much self-hatred, enough that it seemed natural for him to break his strong persona and dissolve into tears. Neither could stop their waves of emotions, and they were left in the terrible wake of them as Keith wept and all Lance could do was hold him. Lance felt the tears soaking into his jacket, and he thought he might cry himself.

“Oh, Keith...” Lance’s voice cracked, and he cradled his head against Keith’s. “Keith, babe…”

“I’m so sorry, Lance.” Keith did not know what else to say. “ _I’m so sorry,_ this is all my fault.”

Lance could not imagine what Keith was enduring, or what he had endured down on Aygya, and anger swallowed his other emotions. There had been Keith, alone and hurt and frightened for his life and another’s as he was captured by the Galra and almost carted off to bow under the mercy of Zarkon. He must have been so scared for their child—scared enough that he let them break his arms and legs willingly, if only to keep them from going anywhere near the unarmored part of his torso. It was a sacrifice he had to make, a sacrifice that so easily could have been in vain, and that thought made Lance angry enough to force Keith to look at him.

 _“No.”_ Lance gripped Keith’s cheeks in his hands and scowled. “Don’t say that—Don’t you _dare_ say that.”

He meant for Keith not to take all the blame on his own, but Keith’s tone and the sight of his face so gross and ugly with pain did now allow Lance the headspace to think his words through. Tears stained and ruddied his cheeks and eyes, and Lance wiped away the tear tracks to try and return some of the face he usually thought of as so pretty. It was to no avail, for more tears simply rolled from his eyes.

“Lance…” Keith croaked. “ _I_ allowed this to happen. I did everything that made us have a child in a first place, a child I put in _danger_. I wasn’t careful, and now—”

“Keith, stop—”

“Lance, they could _die.”_

Lance’s hold weakened, and Keith dropped to his chest. He clutched his fingers to the front of Lance’s jacket, burrowing so hard into Lance’s chest that his ribs creaked. It was an odd sensation at all, considering his entire body seized up, and Lance did not know what emotion he was feeling or how to respond to the statement. He just knew he felt sick to the very center of his heart, and he wanted to comfort Keith in ways he did not know how.

“That’s the worst part of it.” Keith tilted his forehead into Lance’s chest so his mouth was free. “It’s not fair to them. They are not going to be born into a safe environment because of _my_ mistake.”

A stray tear splashed onto Lance’s pants, and the single patter was the only sound in the silence. Lance’s hands were still where Keith’s face had been, and he slowly lowered them to Keith’s back, rubbing as soothingly as he could, because there was nothing he could think to say. It was all too much at once.

“Oh, Keith…” he muttered at last. “You shouldn’t think that way.”

“Why?” Keith sounded furious now, and he jerked away from Lance completely and glared. “It’s the truth.”

“No, babe…” Lance was hurt by Keith leaving him, but it did not matter right now. “You’re being terrible to yourself.”

“That doesn’t mean it’s not true,” Keith huffed. “Do you just not care? You don’t have to deal with any of this, so you just brush it off like—”

Lance snatched Keith’s hands in his own.

“No, it’s not that I _don’t care_ , it’s that I don’t like _giving up_.”

Keith hushed. Lance did not know what he meant until he said it, and he floundered to continue. He looked at their joined hands in the space between them.

“… You already sound defeated.” Lance swallowed. “I don’t want to guilt you out of how you’re feeling, but… It’s like you’ve given up. You’re not giving them or yourself a chance.”

He ran his thumb over Keith’s knuckles as the silence hovered between them: Lance not knowing what else to say, and neither wanting to be here at all. Lance eventually leaned forward and pressed his cheek to Keith’s in an affectionate gesture, feeling the coarse salt from his tears and heavy thrum of his breathing.

He whispered, “Maybe I’m being selfish, but… What if this is our _only_ chance? What if this never happens again?”

Keith’s tears quelled. He thought of Aygya and the anteater family, who despite the danger had taken him in: had given him shelter and a blanket because they believed he was someone with something worth protecting. They must have understood some of the fear he had, having a child of their own, and a deep admiration overcame Keith’s other emotions. They had hope: hope that everything would turn out okay, and Keith would return to where he was safe and loved and at peace.

Keith also thought of the Galra commander. He remembered how she looked when she asked if he was with child, and how furiously she had beat on the cell, like she was taking every pain she ever had out on him.

_“You enjoy mocking my pain, is that it? Making it seem like even you can have what I never can?”_

She had given up long ago. And that is what she had become: a sour, beaten woman with her every dream crushed and nothing left for her to live for.

Keith thought of all these things, and a new emotion settled in with the rest. It was something like hope, but not quite as certain, like when they all had first come together to form Voltron and had the notion that maybe—just maybe—they could do everything they needed to do, together, and it would all turn out alright in the end.

It was enough.

“Lance…” Keith pulled back, looking at him with new affection, his tears all but gone. “It’s not fair, and… I’m _scared.”_

“I know, babe.” Lance brushed away the last tears. “I know.”

Lance pressed their foreheads together, and he ran a hand down Keith’s side to rub over his stomach.

“It’s okay.”

And perhaps it was.

.

Mrs. McClain did not know if she would ever see her son again. And if she did, she certainly did not expect him to turn up at her front door, a swath of blankets in one arm and another clung to by someone she had never seen before with sweat-damp hair and legs that could hardly stand.

“Hey, Mom.” Lance smiled sheepishly. “It’s been a while.”

**Author's Note:**

> Usually I am really picky with characterization, but with this I was like boi,,,


End file.
